The Stone Roses Biography & News

The Stone Roses Details

About The Stone Roses

About The Stone Roses (Created July 5, 2013)

The Stone Roses have been around for roughly three decades, but those 30 years seem like a lifetime of what could have been had the band stayed its course of playing massive stadiums and riding the wave of overnight success achieved in the mid-1980's.

If you haven't heard of the Stone Roses, it's likely that you've stayed on the American side of the pond – a location the group has barely dented despite its initial enormous popularity in England following the release of its debut album. That eponymous debut project in 1989 cemented vocalist Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire, bassist Gary Mounfield and drummer Alan Wren as pioneers of the Madchester movement. But long-term success was like trying to get blood from a stone.

Yes, critics initially hailed the Stone Roses' first album as one of the greatest British albums ever recorded. And yes, the group decided it best to sign with a major label, but was stuck in a contract with Silvertone they couldn't get out of. The result was a long, drawn-out legal battle that pushed a sophomore album, "Second Coming," back to 1994. Reviews were tepid (at best) and scathing (at worst), and the band disbanded shortly thereafter.

The Stone Roses called a press conference on October 18, 2011 to announce that the band had reunited for a reunion tour in 2012. It included three 'homecoming' shows in Heaton Park, Manchester. They're currently working on new music, and were recently featured in a documentary entitled "The Stone Roses: Made of Stone."